The Story of two Princes
by Josi Gray
Summary: Two Princes, one completly lazy and selfish and the other a complete coward, ar send on a year long journey by their royal parents. Including bad witches, dragons, cats walking around in boots, fairies, magic mirrors and many princesses.


_A/N: Well, this is my first FF. I hope its not to bad and would be happy about some reviews!!!_

_(I hope their arent to many spelling mistakes in here, if there are, I'm really sorry!!!!)  
_

**The Story of two Princes**

_Chapter 1:_ **_An educational trip_**

King Casander of Hellenstein looked at his two sons. He was sitting in his huge office, decorated in the colors of his country, gold and blue, behind his huge oak desk, with all kinds of different reports piled in front of him, and scrutinized his children.

Prince Lysander was his eldest son and heir. To his great despair, Lysander, with 21 years, was not interested in ruling at all. He had, of course, lessons in all subjects a Prince should be schooled in. However, even if he did study them, he was not interested in warfare, politics or anything similar. He did, furthermore, not enjoy rescuing Damsels in distress or fighting off dragons (he despised both of them, al though he normally quite enjoyed the company of normal woman). Everyone in the country knew that Lysander was extremely lazy. If his Father didn't force him to attend lessons in fencing and archery and similar things, he would probably just lie in bed the whole day. After his lessons he always took a long bath (he also had one in the morning and in the evening) and then went out shopping. Or he meddled with some noble's daughter, without ever thinking of marrying her. King Casander knew that he was capable of being a good Prince and King. He was just too lazy to actually proove it. The last two years or so the King had tried to persuade his son to marry some nice, pretty princess. One month ago, Casander had lost his temper in one of their discussions about the marrying issue, and screamed at his son. Lysander had screamed back and as a result of the shouting match, the two of them hadn't spoken with each other for the last few weeks.

King Casander had never understood why his son wouldn't marry some princess. He wouldn't have any problems wooing a girl into marrying. He was slender, tall and handsome, with his fine cut face and dark blue eyes. He wore his silvery blond hair long and had some leather stripes braided into it, as was the fashion under musicians and artists of Hellenstein (he liked to create a romantic image of himself). Right now he wore light grey breaches, knee high boots made from soft, brown leather and a brown tunic. Many young princesses would readily agree to a proposal. Prince Lysander, however, enjoyed his live as bachelor a bit too much to give it up so fast and was quite content fighting with his father over the question.

Prince Leander, his 18 year old second child, was very different from his brother. He was broad shouldered and a bit smaller than Lysander. His face was somewhat boyisher and not as refined as his brothers. He kept his hair, which was a reddish blond, short. His light blue eyes were soft and kind. He was dressed in plain trousers and boots, a white shirt, a dark blue waistcoat and a dark cloak. As always his sword was by his side and he looked, all in all, quite the perfect young prince.

Leander dreamed of becoming a big hero. Where Lysander was uninterested in damsels and dragons, Leander was only thinking of them. He always planned rescuing some maiden, held captive by a bad witch, or defeating a dragon terrorizing some far away country. The problem was, that Leander was the biggest coward the world had ever seen. Prince Leander was scared of almost everything one could imagine, from spiders to the darkness. Most of all he feared his father. It was true that the king sometimes had quite a temparament, but he surely wasn't so scary. Another of his fears were woman. When in company with them, except mother, he couldn't bring out a word. Futhermore Leander started stuttering when facing something he feared. As he was scared of almost everything he had a huge problem with stuttering. In the last few years he had somehow improved, but it was still a rare thing to actually hear a clearly pronounced sentence from him. Thus, his plans of gloriously riding into a sunset, having rescued his true love, slayn twenty or so dragons in the process and saved even more kingdoms from destruction, were left unfulfilled until now. And it seemed that they would always remain thus, judging after his somewhat scared looking posture, half hidden behind a cabinet.

Princes Lysander and Leander had, until this fateful day, lived without any restrains. Their father was too much occupied with running a country to spend much time on bringing up his sons. Their mother, Queen Julia, did not think much of authoritive upbringing. She let them make their own choices, so that they could develop freely. King Casander often blamed her for allowing his heir to become a lazy, selfish boy and his younger son a coward. Queen Julia wouldn't hear of such rubbish, for she couldn't find any fault in them (furthermore she was the parent from whom Lysander had inherited his extensive laziness).

However, last week King Casander had decided that he would have to do something to somehow improve his children's characters and disposition.

The day before ordering all of them into his office he went to see the twelve fairies of Hellenstein. Every country back in these days had twelve good fairies and numerous bad ones. King Casander believed himself and his country to be especially unlucky with their fairies. The twelve ladies could only be described as shrews. He couldn't stand them. They were loud, unordered and, in his opinion, incompetent. However, before realizing his plan, he had to make sure that these twelve would cast at least some kind of protection over his children. When he was sure that the fairies had done the best they could (which still wasn't very satisfying after his opinion)and promised to give the two of them some enchanted gifts, he went on to tell his wife and ministers what he would do. His plan was to sent them into the world, without money or servants, for a year.

If his plan worked, they would improve a great deal. And King Casander was convinced his plan would work.

Queen Julia screamed at him for half an hour upon hearing her husbands plan, claiming that he was the biggest fool she had ever met and then breaking into tears, as she was convinced that her dear children would die (afterwards she went back to lying on a sofa and eating truffles).

King Casander was not to be persuaded to stop his plan though, and so, the very next day, he ended up, staring at his sons, thinking about how to tell them of his plan and at the same time trying to ignore Lysanders launching on a nearby sofa and Leanders desperate attempt to hide behind a cabinet.

He tried not to get annoyed, however. When his plan worked he soon wouldn't have to employ them anymore at all.

At last he made a sign for Lysander to get up and for Leander to come and stand infront of his desk. Lysander sighed and, got up and walked over to the desk, his hands in his pockets, Leander moved away from the cabinet and tried to find some kind of security by standing behind his older brother.

King Casander cleared his throat and started talking. "My dear sons. I have decided to sent you on … an educational trip. A quest if you want to put it like this. You will not set foot into Hellenstein for one year. Only the two of you will journey, no servants, no guards. During the year I hope you will make some experiences and change into very fine, young man. After one year I will welcome you back home and judge your … progress made during your trip.

"You will leave in a week's time! What you do during the year, where you go and so on, is completely up to you, as long as you are not in Hellenstein. You will also only have a … limited amount of money with you and will have to earn more if you need more."

Lysander now started talking. "What do you mean 'earn more' father? We are Princes; we should not have to earn money! And what are we supposed to do for a year anyway? You probably don't want us to stay with our relations elsewhere?! You should at least give us a decent amount of money when you already plan on sending us away."

"You will have to figure out what to do for yourself, Lysander. If not, you will probably just die of boredom which would be a pity." The King was getting more and more furious with the Lysander at this point. Why couldn't he just be nice and obedient? Just do what his father, the King, told him to do?

Lysander seemed to be quite upset now, because he started to think of all the implications of having only a 'limited amount of money'. With an 'unlimited amount' he would just have rented a nice house somewhere, made new aquintances and enjoyed his life. But the word 'limited' made that probably impossible.

Leander, for the first time, left his hiding place behind his brothers back and stared, somehow frightened and amazed at the same time, at his father. Then, with some initial stuttering, he began talking. " I-I st-still d-d-d-ont understa-stand wh-why you w-want us to go…?" King Casander looked at his frightened sonand got more annoyed by the minute.

"Your mother and I think that there are some things you still have to learn. And as you did not seem to learn them from your tutors in the castle, we thought it best to send you on a journey. And if you would now just go, I would be very thankful! You should start packing. Don't pack too much, even if you are getting a horse, I will not allow the poor beast to suffer from your foolishness. When you depart, the fairies will give each of you a present. And now, excuse me, Lysander, Leander."

With that, King Casander of Hellenstein stood up from his huge desk and left the room in a hurried flourish of blue and gold robes, almost losing his crown in the process. His very fast exit had the wished for effect though, namely not giving Lysander a chance to complain anymore(Leander would never have dared to complain about anything in his fathers presence).

The Princes stared after their father for a moment. Lysander believed that his old man had in the end lost his mind completely. He had known for quite a while that his father thought himself and his brother spoilt or somehow stupid. But that he would go to such lengths to 'cure' them had never occurred to him. The young man sighed. He would probably have to go. So he would just somehow make the best out of the whole thing. Maybe he could even shorten the length of his ordeal by finding himself a nice Princess to marry. His father had wished for that quite long, so he might just welcome him back when he announced to be engaged after one or two month. It was worth trying! So, the Crown Prince of Hellenstein went off to his chambers to instruct his servants what to pack for his journey.

The Last left in the King's office, was Prince Leander. He was actually quite happy that his father sent him away. He had always wanted to go on an adventure, but was never brave enough to actually do so. This time, he had no choice but to actually go, as his father forced him. Leander drifted off into one of his dreams of fighting a dragon, which held a beautiful maiden captive. After some time of daydreaming, the Prince noticed that he was alone in his father's office and, completely terrified by the idea that the King could return and still find him here, tried to leave as fast as possible.

The magic mirror in King Casanders office muttered some comments about the royal family being complete nutcases to himself and went back to sleep.


End file.
